Everyone is raised to believe that if someone needs some protein or iron in their system, they need some red meat. Or, if someone has an illness, the only way to fix it is to prescribe some medicine. In all reality, we don’t exactly have to resort to these options. There are so many options out there that doctors don’t tell us when we are diagnosed with a problem. They are taught in medical school about Western medicine and what to prescribe, not what someone can just work on to attempt to permanently resolve an issue. Ever wonder what other options there are than just medicine? Many documentaries and articles provide information about this rise in research that the government is failing to tell us.

The real question is: Is eating a plant-based diet actually healthier than taking in meat on the daily? Anytime someone hears that someone is a vegetarian because it is healthier, everyone commonly reacts as if they are crazy because they were told that one needs meat to survive.

Unfortunately, human bodies don’t realize these meat products as food. They think that the cooked meat in their system is some foreign object that is not supposed to be there. So, our bodies produce many white blood cells to attempt to get rid of this object, causing the body to use more energy.

A documentary called “Food Matters,” explains this concept to us, by saying that when we consume a meat product, the energy being used to attack us is the same reason why we are so tired in the afternoon and need a nap. Our bodies shouldn’t need a nap around two in the afternoon as we are designed to last all day, but the food we are taking in is uses up too much energy when it is supposed to be giving us energy.

Dr. Esselstyn, a man shown in the documentary “Forks Over Knives,” was very curious about the difference in number of deaths caused by cancer or heart disease comparing the United States and other countries. The results were shocking to him. In Japan, in one year there was only 18 deaths from prostate cancer. On the other hand, in the United States there were 14,000. How can the difference of death from the same illness have dramatically different numbers in two different countries?

The simple answer to that question: it is all in the diet. The Japanese ingest a more plant-based diet. With this diet added, humans can still get all the nutrients they need during the day and be healthier than if they had some meat. It is said to believe that the future diet of the world is going to be like this.

“Forks Over Knives,” Dr. Esselstyn took a few of his patients who had medical issues and put them on a monitored plant-based diet and told them to stop taking their medications. When one of his patients did this, it reversed his diabetes. Now, if the human body reacts to these diets so greatly, why doesn’t the government publish all these researchers’ studies and findings?

The answer is profit.

All of the pharmaceutical companies and research facilities have the government drowning in profit money. All of the meat companies would rather not lose their profit, too. Why would the government release information that will ruin the only money this country has coming in? That would be careless of them. Why help the American taxpayers? The government tells us the least amount of what we need to know and then keeps the other research studies to themselves.

A doctor who remained anonymous in the film “Food Matters” tells us “that he and his colleagues have submitted research about healthy food options for the government to publish and they have just kept it.” How is it legal for the government to do this? If they keep simple research like this example then what makes us stop to believe that they are keeping the cure to cancer away from us? The government is difficult to trust.

An article written by Alexandra Sifferlin, from Time.com tells us seven reasons why vegetarians live longer. Those reasons are: low blood pressure, lower risk of premature death, better moods, less chance of heart disease, lower risk of cancer, lower risk of diabetes, and less likely to be overweight. All these factors can be backed up by the other documents that have been discussed. This idea of keeping animals alive and just eating a plant-based diet needs to be looked at by more people, especially Americans.

A graduate student at the Center for Nutrition Studies found himself watching the documentary “Forks Over Knives” and it completely changed his life. He switched to a plant-based diet and the changes were drastic. He lost 60 pounds, his cholesterol levels lowered and it cured his sleep apnea. All these people who try it are having such great progress so why doesn’t everybody do it? He is a physician so since it worked for him, he now tries to “teach [his] patients that the most powerful medication available is not the pill they take for their chronic disease, but the food they put in their mouths.” What people eat today could be the reason for all these diseases that they are going through, if everyone noticed the best cure is watching what they eat, the United States death rates for chronic diseases would most likely drop.

“Let thy food be thy medicine.”

“Food Matters” starts their documentary with that sentence on the screen. Let’s listen to it! Stop the pills and just try natural ways, our bodies were made to be able to take care of themselves and have their own healing mechanisms.

We are doing more harm than good; let’s open our eyes and realize we can do this without the government. We should really just monitor what is being ingested into our bodies and if there is a way to make it healthier for us, we should explore that option. This country needs to start valuing health a little more than the profit.